User:Stephen Hodge

I am a translator and writer on Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, working with texts in a number of the major Buddhist canonical languages, including Tibetan, Chinese, Sanskrit, Pali, Japanese and Mongolian.

Following a very early childhood interest in Buddhism and languages, I went on to study Japanese, Tibetan and Buddhism at the University of London. After graduation, I spent ten years in Japan doing post-graduate studies in Yog&#257;c&#257;ra and early Tantric Buddhism at Tohoku University in the 1970s. During my stay in Japan, I also became a monk in the Shingon School at Mount Koya and was the first Westerner ever to receive the full esoteric initiations there. On the Tibetan side of Buddhism, I also studied for many years with several leading masters of the Nyingma and Kagyü schools.

Following my return to the United Kingdom, I have been involved in a wide range of teaching activities at various Dharma centres, as well as lecturing at the University of London. I was also President of the European Buddhist Union during the mid-80s.

My principle interests in the Buddhological field focus on the key phases in the development of Indian Buddhism – pre-Nikayan Buddhism, the emergence of Mahayana, and the rise of Tantric Buddhism. I also have a keen interest in the neglected field of Buddhist lexicography.

On-going work currently includes a translation in English of a large portion of the Yog&#257;c&#257;ra-bh&#363;mi-&#347;&#257;stra for the Numata Foundation series of translations from the Chinese canon, an Introduction to Reading Buddhist Chinese, as well as a complete translation and study of the Mah&#257;y&#257;na Mah&#257;-parinirv&#257;na-s&#363;tra from Tibetan and the Chinese version by Faxian.

My main publications include:

Tibetan Divination (1998), An Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism (Piatkus 1999), The Illustrated Tibetan Book of the Dead (Godsfield 2000), Atlantis (Piakus 2000), The Tibetan Alamanac (Eddison & Sadd), The Dead Sea Scrolls (Piatus 2001), Tao Te Ching (Stirling 2002), Zen Master Class (2002), An Introduction to Classical Tibetan (reprinted Orchid Press 2003), The Mah&#257;-vairocana-abhisa&#7747;bodhi-tantra (Routledge Curzon 2003), Oxford Dictionary of Buddhism ed. Damien Keown (OUP 2003) [Tibetan and non-Pali Indic entries]

Truth
"The greatest enemies of truth are those who think they have a monopoly of truth."

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The Faith-based Encyclopedia
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Advice for New Editors
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Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
1.	Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.

2.	The probability that a certain person be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.

3.	A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.

4.	Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.

5.	A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person. (Carlo Maria Cipolla)

Greetings from Australia. Stephen, the good humour and elegance of your contributions is so refreshing. If you get a moment, please visit the relatively undeveloped Tibetan Buddhism article on Wikipedia. Also, in the Tibetan Buddhist Canon article, you may be interested in the subheading, "The Translations".

Moonsell (talk) 01:15, 19 May 2008 (UTC)